For those who are not already aware, this will be my last column for MyMPN. The Mint Press News reader blog will be closing down as the website prepares to restructure their resources.

Still, I wanted to use this final column to offer some advice for all activists and to announce my future plans.

I know that there is a great sense of despair and dread as we prepare to watch Donald Trump’s inauguration in nine days. The fear is heightened for those who are African American, Latino, a member of the LGBT community, etc. That is why it’s important to not only donate to organizations that support those who will be targeted by a Trump administration, but also to have viable social movements that challenge all forms of political and corporate power.

I guarantee you that this will be the shortest column of mine you will ever read.

As the holidays rapidly approach, most of us personally know someone who is hurting financially or emotionally. Their pain is frequently and unfortunately drowned out by the consumerism of the shopping season.

That is why for this holiday season, I am asking my readership and all who read this column to commit at least one act of solidarity or kindness for those who need it.

There was a time that the title of intellectual was of great reverence in society. Now, as Raymond Williams writes in his “Keywords:

“Until the middle twentieth century unfavorable uses of intellectuals, intellectualism, and intelligentsia were dominant in English, and it is clear that such uses persist.”

It is easy to understand why. Many intellectuals today have become courtiers to power. They have become stenographers and apologists to the political and financial elites that have eroded away our rule of law, our environment, our middle class, and the institutions that we once looked to for guidance.